BOSTON – So what is it going to take for the Bruins, clinging for dear life to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, to play a full game with the type of desperation and determination expected of a club with postseason aspirations that isn’t assured of a spot in the tournament.

If a showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, in their first home game after a two-week road trip and a chance to exact revenge on cheap-shot artist Matt Cooke didn’t do it, maybe nothing will.

The Bruins were flat for the final 40 minutes in their 3-0 loss to the Penguins, including the second period when they were outshot 15-5. Add in the ugly first periods in Montreal (where a Boston team should always be fired up) and New Jersey, and long stretches of disinterest during the game they pulled out against lowly Carolina, and you have to wonder if there’s any burning fire in the hearts of these Bruins.

Luckily, the mediocre East might not require more of the Bruins than some lackadaisical .500 play to get in the playoffs and get swept by the powerhouse Washington Capitals. Because they’ve now played 70 games and the Bruins are still looking for answers.

“It’s something that we all have to look in the mirror and really ask yourself if you did your best and put it out there and I mean, it’s not that we win as a team and we lose as individuals; you know, we lost as a team and we all have to be better,” captain Zdeno Chara said. “That’s the bottom line, you know. We have (12) games left, so these games we have to put behind us. I know it’s the same, you guys probably hear it a lot, but we have to look forward to the next game and obviously it’s huge to have two teams that are behind us trying to obviously make the playoffs like we do and so close to us. Those are going to be huge, huge games for us so for sure we have to get ready for those.”

To his credit, Chara tried to rally his troops during that dismal second period. Already nursing a dislocated pinky on his left hand and obviously battling other ailments that have slowed him down, Chara challenged and beat up Pittsburgh giant Mike Rupp out near center ice. Although teammate Shawn Thornton was on the ice, Chara made a point of doing the work himself – and before heading to the penalty box he barked toward his bench in an attempt to urge his teammates to play like their lives depended on it.

Well, if the game was a matter of life or death the Bruins would be in a pine box.

It’s pretty obvious nothing will pump life into the Bruins. There were three things proven against the Penguins. Thornton is the ultimate stand-up guy and would do anything to defend a teammate – as he displayed by not even giving Cooke four seconds of ice time before delivering a beating. Chara can be an emotional, physical captain when the chips are down. And the Bruins as an 18-man unit are as characterless as they showed in Pittsburgh when they didn’t immediately respond to Cooke’s hit on Savard.

Regardless of what happened tonight, nothing could erase what happened March 7 at The Igloo. The Bruins then revealed themselves as a team that doesn’t stick up for each other and can be pushed around. When you’re best offensive player gets knocked into tomorrow and all you can muster is a light push here or there during a post-whistle scrum, it might be time to accept that this isn’t your year.

Head coach Claude Julien, who said he didn’t want to make excuses, nonetheless referenced the flu bug that zapped his team since its return from Raleigh. You could see the players skating as though they were in quicksand, but in my book if you’re healthy enough to play, you’re healthy enough to give a 100-percent effort against the Cup champs. Otherwise, sit out and let someone else take a shot. Instead, we watched Marco Sturm depart the game after 14 (mostly invisible) shifts and the rest of the Bruins players play as though it was September.

Just the fact that Thornton, and then Chara, had to fight to lift the team’s energy level in front of a packed-house that was thirty for blood tells you there’s a lot more lacking in this Bruins team than a pure goal-scorer and a couple extra defensemen with the ability to make a first pass. Unfortunately, that missing ingredient is an intangible – heart – that’s difficult to measure. General manager Peter Chiarelli gauged it adequately last season and completely miscalculated it this season. It’s unlikely that the “heart” level of this team will magically grow between now and the 2010 playoffs. That means an early exit, if they qualify, from postseason. And a need to really re-assess which players can be built around and which need to be thrown out.

This BS of they won the Battle not the War what a crock,what battle you loose your best player and all you can produce is one fight and call it even this team does not have the HEART to put on the Bruins sweater with exception to Shaw Thorton. I think the coach is to blame for this one it wasnt the loss that got me it was that Cooke should have been beaten sensless every time his skate touched that ice that fight did nothing for revenge how many hits did he face all of 3 maybe were was Lucic Oh Ya I forgot sign a big contract and dont show up any more, just goes to show its not about the TEAM or the FANS its about the DOLLAR SIGN I have been a bruins fan for 28 years that was the last game I will ever watch, with todays economy and the price of a ticket it is not worth watching heartless hockey if Derrick Sanderson could lace them up again I am sure Matt Cooke would have been watching the rest of that game from the E.R I wouldnt attend a game if I were givin FREE tickets to sit onb the bench with these HEARTLESS BUM’S.

I tend towards the opinion that this is part of the story that the Bruins and their fans tell themselves, and it’s actually part of the problem.

Call it heart, call it character– the self-image of the Boston Bruins as a lunchpail team is deeply ingrained. When they win, it’s because they have it. When they don’t, it’s because they lack it. The Bruins ownership and staff I think are locked into this mindset, and it’s what leads them to allow players like Kessel to leave– because regardless of talent or statistics, they supposedly lack character. The Bruins are a victim of their own meritocracy where what really matters is attitude, not talent.

Last year’s team arguably overachieved. This year’s team is both less talented and underachieving, and the talented players they kept have either not performed to expectations, like Ryder and Krecji, or been injured, like Sturm, Bergeron, and Savard, or both– like Lucic.

Pinning the team’s performance issue to character flaws makes better copy, but it doesn’t describe the reality of the situation, and certainly doesn’t help form a blueprint for improving the quality of the on-ice product.